HOW TO PORT YOUR APP TO A DIFFERENT PLATFORM
If you are reading this, you most likely have an iOS or Android app that you are considering porting to a different platform. whether or not you are looking for a developer or simply researching the subject, we tend to hope this text can assist you to realize the answers you are looking for.
How to port an app
There are four belongings you must be compelled to think about once porting an iOS app to android or porting an android app to iOS: needs gathering, development, design, and testing.
Requirement gathering
Gathering needs is the quickest part of the method of porting to a replacement OS. Our shoppers don’t have to be compelled to worry regarding making ready long specifications, creating loads of Skype calls, and defrayal weeks writing emails. Since there’s already an existing application, we will use it as a guide once developing for the second OS.
Development
Porting an android app to iOS isn’t regarding translating android code to iOS code. whether or not you would like to port an iPhone app to android, or the opposite means spherical, this method is really regarding developing a product from scratch. Developing an app for a selected platform needs the information on platform-specific particularities. Porting AN iOS app to android (or vice versa) can’t be done by just replicating code in a very completely different language. once we style AN app for multiple platforms, we’ve got to upset completely different hardware configurations, software package support, and customization.
1) Hardware Configurations
Even though iOS devices are made completely by Apple, there are still many various forms of iPhones and iPads. android devices are shipped by an outsized variety of makers. For a developer, this suggests that hardware configurations together with screen resolution, layout, processor design, memory capability, fingerprint readers, buttons, and a lot of cans vary among devices. When we develop an iOS app, we tend to typically build is compatible with the present and the previous versions of the iPhone (e.g. iPhone 5, 6, and 6S). once it involves android, we elect the foremost fashionable devices together with people who our shopper prefers and people that are fashionable in a very given market.
Selecting the proper hardware is crucial for app development. Mobile apps ordinarily use a device’s microcode provided by the manufacturer. Basic apps – like camera, widgets, gallery, and call book – admit underlying microcode that may vary by manufacturer. In alternative words, the means this practicality is enforced beneath the hood isn’t continuously constant. mechanical man makers will customize the planning and feel of their microcode, which produces an outsized segmentation within the space of GUI style and should cause usability problems. for instance, completely different producers of android devices work otherwise with the Exchangeable image file format. this can be the rationale for why bound cameras invert photos. we will fix this downside and look at exposure capturing practicality on an outsized variety of android devices.
2) Support for OS
IOS devices receive regular updates from Apple. The update cycle for android devices varies widely. apart from with Nexus devices, it takes your time for device makers to upgrade to the newest version of android. We usually build AN iPhone app compatible with the newest and also the previous iOS versions (e.g. iOS nine and iOS 8). With android, we tend to advocate supporting the newest version, the foremost wide used version, and people versions that are fashionable in a very given country. for instance, we tend to nearly always support jelly bean 4.1 as a result of its employed by 89 of android devices worldwide. typically, our shoppers additionally would like support for ice cream Sandwich as a result of in some countries this can be still the foremost common version. Since every new edition of AN OS comes with new practicality, we tend to can’t make sure that constant options can work on the previous version of the system. during this case, we’ll either realize a ready-made answer or produce one for you. for instance, car layout solely appeared in iOS vi, and gesture recognition solely appeared in iOS four. before those releases, we tend to have to implement these options ourselves (yes, we’re that old!).
3) Customization
We all recognize that iOS may be a closed-source OS whereas Android source code is discharged beneath open-source licenses. will this mean we absolve to opt for however, we wish to develop our android apps, however, restricted once it involves iOS? affirmative and no. While it would be true that android provides a lot of freedom to developers and that we will customize something from high to bottom, we’re adding a lot of seemingly to upset platform-specific problems which will inevitably prohibit our potentialities. for instance, developing advanced recording practicality on android may be a huge challenge. Some options, like a movie, can’t be enforced, as a result of nearly all mechanical man phones fail to supply hardware support for recording at frame rates needed for the movie result. you’ll be able to scan a lot of regarding developing AN Instagram for video on android here. Apple provides heaps deal} of great tools out of the box, however it still doesn’t mean that we have a tendency to can’t produce our own library or use one from a third-party. there’s no doubt any longer whether one ought to develop a part for iOS or Android. If we tend to build an honest tool for iOS, we’ll beyond question port it to android and the alternative means spherical. For example, we’re building a variety of open-source animations for each platform and might customize them for our clients to come no matter the app we’re building. Check them out on our GitHub repository.
Now we’ve puzzled out what it takes to write down the code platform; however, what regarding design? Porting an existing app to a different platform typically means that investing in constant content, structure, and graphics. Let’s refer to that a touch bit.
4) Design
Moving style from one platform to a different need a deep understanding of that platform’s standards and user behavior. An aesthetically pleasing user interface.
